Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The owner of the Buffalo Grand Hotel says he was blindsided by Mayor Chris Scanlon's attempt to take over his hotel through the use of Article 19-B.
"To be honest, I still haven't heard it from Mayor Scanlon. I have only had media calling me," said Harry Stinson in an interview with WBEN on Thursday. "I have made attempts to speak with him in the past. I've been rebuffed by his office, but he's very busy. I have had no email, no phone call, no letter, no registered letter, no attempt to reach me whatsoever."
Scanlon announced Thursday the city wanted to take legal means to take over the hotel in Downtown Buffalo.
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Responding to Scanlon's claim he has tried to meet with Stinson as late as November, Stinson's response was simple:
"Total bull****," Stinson said.
According to Stinson, it was members of the media that got a hold of him minutes after the news conference. He's upset partially because communication could have come at any time, especially with Scanlon's office nearby at Buffalo City Hall.
"If he can provide me with one example of trying to reach me to have a meeting, I would be surprised," Stinson said.
Stinson is not just going to roll over and go away. He feels he has not put the hotel in decay, as Scanlon seemed to suggest on Thursday.
"We bought a hotel that was in decay. We had it open. It was apparently safe, because it was not shut down. We were working with the building commissioners throughout," Stinson contended. "We did not plan a pandemic, nor did we plan a fire. When the fire happened, we had actually spent $750,000 cleaning up the whole guest link, the area of the building so it could be functional. We had it ready to open within 60 days of the fire, working with the building inspector at the time, who was an experienced senior building inspector, who instructed us to place a wall to close off the event area where the fire happened in the far end of the event area, which is a good 400 feet away from the guest wing."
Stinson claims just as he was ready to re-open the hotel, the city issued a red light.
"Two days before we were going to open the building, Commissioner Catherine Amdur came into the building and announced, 'I'm not letting you open. This entire building has to be completely rebuilt to my satisfaction before I will let you have anybody in this building,'" Stinson explained.
Stinson notes the hotel is not up to code, but it won't open until it is up to code.
"We've never disagreed with the necessity of safety. We've never disagreed with that. We've tried when you have a $50 million fire on a building that needed work, no question about that. We've never disagreed with that," he said. "We didn't program the fire. We didn't program a two-year pandemic that starved us of resources very heavily. We've struggled to get financing for a long time. We couldn't get the financing until we had the insurance settlement done."
Stinson also disputes allegations there were people living inside the hotel.
"We have cameras throughout the building. We have security going through the building. There are no people living in the building. Anybody that has attempted to, we've thrown them out," Stinson added.
Stinson admits it's hard to get a date on when he can get the hotel up-and-running.